that shortfall is called the deficit. when you add together all the annual deficits and the interest on them, you get the national debt. today that stands at $16.4 trillion and a whole lot of change. that comes out to $52,000 for every american man, woman, and child. economists agree the best way to bring down that number is to grow the economy. that means more tax revenue coming in and fewer people relying on the social safety net. new numbers show the economy isn't growing. the economy is shrinking. america's gdp fell by an annual rate of 0.1% in the last quarter of last year. the last time that hand was during the recession. economics professor and unapologetic liberal paul krugman says the u.s. needs to wait for economic growth come back before even thinking about spending cuts. >> the power of the household analogy is very strong. remember, we all -- the liberal leeng congress made fun of boehner when he said families have to tighten their belts, the government does, too. that's stupid. three months later, obama was